Posts Tagged ‘Taggie blanket’

…I’m back again. The basic problem with this blog is that I don’t really have time to make anything to show you…which is something of an issue for a craft blog.
Anyway that to one side I do actually have a couple of things that have been finished for a while. I made this version of a taggie blanket in the week before Beatrix was born. I didn’t even know what a taggie was until I saw a little person with one at a playdate.

The aforementioned little person seemed to like it so I thought I’d buy one for my future baby. I looked online and was gobsmacked to find that they were about £13. Err it’s just a couple of pieces of material sewn together with some ribbon on the edge….I can make that for about 50p, I thought.

(Seriously the number of companies making money out of babies because people don’t have basic sewing skills is unbelievable….although obviously I also get that a lot of people don’t have the time/inclination to make this sort of stuff once the bambino arrives).

My version uses a cut down fat quarter from a print that Liberty did for the V&A quilting exhibition. This particular design is ‘Hearts’ in green, taken from a patchwork coverlet from the 1780s and 90s.

I’m sure many of you think that making a taggie blanket from such a nice piece of material is stupid but as I thought there was a chance it might be adopted and totted around for years I wanted something that I didn’t hate the look of.

(My sister had a beautiful handmade…and I mean handmade i.e. all sewn by hand not with a machine…cot quilt that she carried around with her, it’s now completely destroyed but I’m sure it looked super cute and incredibly tastful when she was tiny. I expect my Aunt hoped it would become a family heirloom, you should see it now it’s just little threads of material hanging together like a spider web. I adopted an unattractive stripy pillow case as my comfort blanket, my sister has always had considerably better taste than me).

It’s backed with a piece of soft flannel and the ribbons around the edge are just what I happened to have in my ribbon box that ‘went’ with the quilting fabric.
So as I didn’t buy anything specifically for this project I’m going to consider it free! Babies seem to love chewing and pulling at tags on anything and everything so this would make a great baby shower gift.

The most time consuming part is pinning all the ribbon on. I found the best method was to cut all the ribbon to the same length, fold them in half and then pin them approximately one cm apart from one another. It definetly looks more professional if all the ribbons are around the same length.

I’ve used a variety of ribbons including some grosgrain ones. If I’d had some velvet ones in an appropriate colour I’d have added them as I think the different textures make it more interesting for a little person.

Hope to be back soon, even if it’s just with some work in progress photos. I’ve also started my Christmas presents which is a bit of a nightmare as how do you blog about those when the people you’re making stuff for read your blog? Mmm this is a long post, I need to become more succinct, thanks for reading to the end if you’re still here.